Graphical user interface and system for viewing landing page content

ABSTRACT

A web site publisher may improve user interaction with landing pages from third-party publishers by displaying landing page content in a navigation window offering users the ability to interact with one or more landing pages in formats including: carousel, multiple panes, stacks, tabs, and tiles. Pages may be displayed in focus, below or behind the active display area, in full size windows, in reduced windows, and so forth. Landing page content may be loaded in advance of a user focusing on a specific page. The navigation window offers users the ability to store preferences, to refresh landing pages, to save searches, to search in one landing page, and/or to have results propagate to other landing pages.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This Application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.15/283,432, filed Oct. 2, 2016, entitled “GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE ANDSYSTEM FOR VIEWING LANDING PAGE CONTENT”, which is a Non-Provisional ofProvisional (35 USC 119(e)) of U.S. Application Ser. No. 62/362,413,filed Jul. 14, 2016, entitled “GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE AND SYSTEM FORVIEWING LANDING PAGE CONTENT”. Application Ser. No. 15/283432 is aNon-Provisional of Provisional (35 USC 119(e)) of U.S. Application Ser.No. 62/362,428, filed Jul. 14, 2016, entitled “GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACEAND SYSTEM FOR VIEWING LANDING PAGE CONTENT”. The entire contents ofthese applications are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 1. Field of Invention

The present disclosure relates generally to Internet technologies,specifically content distribution.

2. Discussion of Related Art

Internet publishers distribute a variety of content according tobusiness models that range from free, public access to subscriptionservices. Often, in return for displaying free content, Internetpublishers will display advertising to web site visitors. Third-partypublishers commonly pay publishers for the opportunity to displayadvertising content to drive user traffic to third-party publisherwebsites. One approach used to display Internet advertising includes theuse of landing page content. Conventional approaches to providinglanding page content have included linking, such as with a text orimage-based display advertisement, to a landing page. The landing pagemay be hosted on a publisher's website, an intermediary website, amobile application, or a third-party publisher's application or website.If a landing page is displayed, it may appear in a separate web browserwindow, as a new tab in an open web browser window, or as a window in asoftware application.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The inventors have recognized that a limitation of Internet contentdistribution includes the realization once a landing page is displayedto a user, the user may navigate away from the site that originallydisplayed the link to the landing page. Generally, the publisher of thisfirst web site retains little control over the user experience on thelanding page associated with a second web site. Also, while theconventional model may lead to the display of multiple landing pages,only one landing page may appear at a time. Furthermore, web browserinterfaces and tools (e.g., mouse, cursor, and keystrokes) may limitusers and their ability to navigate from one landing page to another.

Historically, Internet content publishers, including publishers ofmedia, commerce, gaming, and other types of sites, have sought to retainuser attention and to discourage users from visiting sites hosted bycompeting publishers. For example, the New York Times has nothistorically encouraged site visitors to click through to content hostedby the Washington Post. This has led to an arm's length relationshipbetween publishers in similar categories, and as a result, contenttargeting networks have emerged to enable publishers in a category tocompete for user attention when those users are visiting other websites.Following the above example, suppose a newspaper has published a seriesof articles on an upcoming presidential election—in traditional contenttargeting, the newspaper could bid to display an advertisement toattract the attention of a user engaging in any of the followingbehaviors: searching for information about presidential candidates on asearch engine, visiting a political party website, posting comments to awebsite, and even while visiting the newspaper's own website. In contentretargeting, a site publisher relies on networks to deliver advertisingand other forms of content to site visitors who subsequently visit othersites.

Historically, targeted and retargeted network content delivery has beenlimited to hyperlinked text, Flash animations, and other types of images(e.g. GIF, JPEG, TIF). Also, the targeting and retargeting model hastraditionally been focused on retaining users and site visitors. Whendelivering users and site visitors to landing page content, two modelsexist: “click-in” and “click-out.” A “click-in” landing page isinteractive content that links the user to a landing page within thepublisher's website, for example, where a third-party publisher pays forplacing an ad on the publisher's website. Meanwhile, a “click-out”landing page is a landing page link that links the user to a landingpage specified by a third-party publisher (e.g., a web page on anthird-party publisher's website). In low conversion environments, suchas where users comparison shop between multiple sites, publishers facechallenges in adapting to changing landing page content (e.g. product,pricing, and inventory searches) while preserving a “click-in”experience for the user.

Improved methods and systems for Internet content distribution aredescribed herein. According to one aspect the inventors have appreciatedthat on a typical e-commerce website operated by a publisher, wherecertain goods and/or services are sold, a vast majority of visitors tothe first website do not complete a sales transaction, which is referredto in the art as a “conversion.” In fact, it is realized that a typicale-commerce website has a conversion rate of 3%-5%. Thus, it isappreciated that visitors primarily use some e-commerce websites tobrowse and research products. For instance, visitors may researchproduct features, price, availability, reviews, and comparisoninformation on many such websites without making any purchases. Often,after acquiring the desired information about a particular product fromthe website, the user will locate and purchase that product from anothersource, for example on another website operated by a different publisheror complete the transaction using another channel (e.g., telephoneorder, brick-and-mortar store).

In one example, the user may find that the e-commerce website provides aconvenient place to research and/or comparison shop, but once apurchasing decision is made, the user exercises his or her preferencefor purchasing certain products directly from a manufacturer or atrusted retailer rather than from the publisher. Specifically, a useraccesses an online travel service, such as Expedia® online travelwebsite available from Expedia, Inc., to shop for airline tickets, butafter locating the desired itinerary and fare, the user ultimatelypurchases the tickets directly from the airline and not from the Expediawebsite. In another example, the visitor does not find what he or she islooking for on the first website, and leaves the website withoutcompleting a transaction.

When no transaction occurs on the website, the publisher receives notransaction revenue from the visitor. According to one aspect, it isappreciated that most e-commerce websites monetize their visitorsexclusively, or almost exclusively, through transaction (or sales)revenue. In some instances, a publisher receives a stream of advertising(or media) revenue for serving ads on their website for various goodsand services sold by others. The media revenue, if any, is generallyused to supplement the transaction revenue. Publishers may employvarious approaches to determining when, and if, to display third-partypublisher content to a given user. Example approaches, such as hurdlerates, are discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,527,341 and 8,527,342, bothentitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC ADVERTISING,” both filed Jun.4, 2010, which are both incorporated herein by reference. Also, thisapplication is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/793,920 filed Jun. 4, 2010, which is incorporated herein byreference.

The sharing of advertising revenue between various publishers of traveland e-commerce sites creates a context for the present disclosure.According to various aspects of the present disclosure, new userinterfaces and associated systems are provided that improve how awebsite publisher displays content from third-party publishers. In oneembodiment, this content may extend beyond advertising messages toinclude landing pages from third-party publishers. In oneimplementation, a user may request content from a publisher's website,and the publisher may provide interface components that open additionalwindows and/or tabs to display landing page content from variousthird-party publishers. In another implementation, the publisher mayprovide components used to display third-party landing page content in aseparate navigation window. In yet another aspect, the initial searchmay originate within a mobile application, and the publisher may displaythird-party landing pages within the mobile application in a variety ofways.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying withina portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying withina portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent, wherein each of the respective landing page content is arrangedin one or more of the formats comprising the group of: horizontal tabs,vertical tabs, carousel, multi-pane, staggered, or stacked.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying withina portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent, wherein, each respective landing page is presented in one ormore of the formats comprising the group of: landing page thumbnail,loaded landing page, landing page icon, or image representing thelanding page.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying withina portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises afirst content display area having an initial control that accepts thefirst content request, and the method further comprises acts of:receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of thefirst content display area, the first content request; requesting,responsive to the first content request, content from a publisherassociated with the first content display area; receiving the contentfrom the publisher associated with the first content display area; anddisplaying, within the first content display area, the content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying withina portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises afirst content display area having an initial control that accepts thefirst content request; receiving, from a user interacting with theinitial control area of the first content display area, the firstcontent request; requesting, responsive to the first content request,content from a publisher associated with the first content display area;receiving the content from the publisher associated with the firstcontent display area; and displaying, within the first content displayarea, the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacedisplays the respective landing page content from each of the one ormore third-party publishers in a second content display area.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying withina portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises afirst content display area having an initial control that accepts thefirst content request, and the method further comprises acts of:receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of thefirst content display area, the first content request; requesting,responsive to the first content request, content from a publisherassociated with the first content display area; receiving the contentfrom the publisher associated with the first content display area; anddisplaying, within the first content display area, the content, whereinthe first content display area is a web page.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying withina portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises afirst content display area having an initial control that accepts thefirst content request; receiving, from a user interacting with theinitial control area of the first content display area, the firstcontent request; requesting, responsive to the first content request,content from a publisher associated with the first content display area;receiving the content from the publisher associated with the firstcontent display area; and displaying, within the first content displayarea, the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacedisplays the respective landing page content from each of the one ormore third-party publishers in a second content display area, andwherein the first content display area is a web page.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within aportion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent; receiving a second content request; identifying, responsive tothe second content request, one or more third-party publishers fromwhich to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to thesecond content request, respective landing page content from each of theidentified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respectivelanding page content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphicaluser interface a presentation interface comprising a representation ofthe respective landing page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within aportion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises afirst content display area having an initial control that accepts thefirst content request, and the method further comprises acts of:receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of thefirst content display area, the first content request; requesting,responsive to the first content request, content from a publisherassociated with the first content display area; receiving the contentfrom the publisher associated with the first content display area;displaying, within the first content display area, the content;receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of thefirst content display area, a second content request; requesting,responsive to the second content request, content from the publisherassociated with the first content display area; receiving content fromthe publisher associated with the first content display area; anddisplaying, within the first content display area, the content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within aportion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises afirst content display area having an initial control that accepts thefirst content request; receiving, from a user interacting with theinitial control area of the first content display area, the firstcontent request; requesting, responsive to the first content request,content from a publisher associated with the first content display area;receiving the content from the publisher associated with the firstcontent display area; displaying, within the first content display area,the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface displaysthe respective landing page content from each of the one or morethird-party publishers in a second content display area; receiving, froma user interacting with the initial control area of the first contentdisplay area, a second content request; identifying, responsive to thesecond content request, one or more third-party publishers from which torequest landing page content; requesting, responsive to the secondcontent request, respective landing page content from each of theidentified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respectivelanding page content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphicaluser interface a presentation interface comprising a representation ofthe respective landing page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within aportion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises afirst content display area having an initial control that accepts thefirst content request; receiving, from a user interacting with theinitial control area of the first content display area, the firstcontent request; requesting, responsive to the first content request,content from a publisher associated with the first content display area;receiving the content from the publisher associated with the firstcontent display area; displaying, within the first content display area,the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface displaysthe respective landing page content from each of the one or morethird-party publishers in a second content display area; receiving, froma user interacting with the initial control area of the first contentdisplay area, a second content request; requesting, responsive to thesecond content request, content from the publisher associated with thefirst content display area; receiving content from the publisherassociated with the first content display area; displaying, within thefirst content display area, the content; identifying, responsive to thesecond content request, one or more third-party publishers from which torequest landing page content; requesting, responsive to the secondcontent request, respective landing page content from each of theidentified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respectivelanding page content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphicaluser interface a presentation interface comprising a representation ofthe respective landing page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within aportion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises afirst content display area having an initial control that accepts thefirst content request; receiving, from a user interacting with theinitial control area of the first content display area, the firstcontent request; requesting, responsive to the first content request,content from a publisher associated with the first content display area;receiving the content from the publisher associated with the firstcontent display area; and displaying, within the first content displayarea, the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacedisplays the respective landing page content from each of the one ormore third-party publishers in a second content display area, wherein alanding page displayed in the second content display area includes atleast one initial control capable of accepting a second content request;receiving, from a user interacting with an initial control area of alanding page in the second content display area, a second contentrequest; requesting, responsive to the second content request, landingpage content from the third-party publisher associated with the landingpage; receiving the landing page content from the third-party publisher;and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interfacea presentation interface comprising a representation of the respectivelanding page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within aportion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises afirst content display area having an initial control that accepts thefirst content request; receiving, from a user interacting with theinitial control area of the first content display area, the firstcontent request; requesting, responsive to the first content request,content from a publisher associated with the first content display area;receiving the content from the publisher associated with the firstcontent display area; and displaying, within the first content displayarea, the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacedisplays the respective landing page content from each of the one ormore third-party publishers in a second content display area, whereinthe second content display area includes at least one initial controlcapable of accepting a second content request; receiving, from a userinteracting with the initial control area of the second content displayarea, a second content request; requesting, responsive to the secondcontent request, content from the publisher associated with the firstcontent display area; receiving content from the publisher associatedwith the first content display area; and displaying, within the firstcontent display area, the content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within aportion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises afirst content display area having an initial control that accepts thefirst content request; receiving, from a user interacting with theinitial control area of the first content display area, the firstcontent request; requesting, responsive to the first content request,content from a publisher associated with the first content display area;receiving the content from the publisher associated with the firstcontent display area; and displaying, within the first content displayarea, the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacedisplays the respective landing page content from each of the one ormore third-party publishers in a second content display area, whereinthe second content display area includes at least one initial controlcapable of accepting a second content request; receiving, from a userinteracting with the initial control area of the second content displayarea, a second content request; identifying, responsive to the secondcontent request, one or more third-party publishers from which torequest landing page content; requesting, responsive to the secondcontent request, respective landing page content from each of theidentified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respectivelanding page content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphicaluser interface a presentation interface comprising a representation ofthe respective landing page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within aportion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises afirst content display area having an initial control that accepts thefirst content request; receiving, from a user interacting with theinitial control area of the first content display area, the firstcontent request; requesting, responsive to the first content request,content from a publisher associated with the first content display area;receiving the content from the publisher associated with the firstcontent display area; and displaying, within the first content displayarea, the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacedisplays the respective landing page content from each of the one ormore third-party publishers in a second content display area, whereinthe second content display area includes at least one initial controlcapable of accepting a second content request; receiving, from a userinteracting with the initial control area of the second content displayarea, a second content request; requesting, responsive to the secondcontent request, content from the publisher associated with the firstcontent display area; receiving content from the publisher associatedwith the first content display area; displaying, within the firstcontent display area, the content; identifying, responsive to the secondcontent request, one or more third-party publishers from which torequest landing page content; requesting, responsive to the secondcontent request, respective landing page content from each of theidentified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respectivelanding page content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphicaluser interface a presentation interface comprising a representation ofthe respective landing page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying withina portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent; observing user interactions in a distributed computer system;

deciding, responsive to at least one of the group comprising: the firstcontent request and the observed user interactions, to update thepresentation interface; identifying, responsive to at least one of thegroup comprising: the first content request and the observed userinteractions, one or more third-party publishers from which to requestlanding page content; requesting, responsive to at least one of thegroup comprising: the first content request and the observed userinteractions, respective landing page content from each of theidentified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respectivelanding page content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphicaluser interface a presentation interface comprising a representation ofthe respective landing page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying withina portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent; storing the first content request as a stored content request;terminating a session of the presentation interface displayed within theat least one graphical user interface; deciding to initiate a newsession of the presentation interface; identifying, responsive to thestored content request, one or more third-party publishers from which torequest landing page content; requesting, responsive to at least one ofthe group comprising: the first content request and the observed userinteractions, respective landing page content from each of theidentified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respectivelanding page content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphicaluser interface a presentation interface comprising a representation ofthe respective landing page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displayingthird-party landing page content includes receiving a first contentrequest; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one ormore third-party publishers from which to request landing page content;requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landingpage content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each ofthe identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying withina portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentationinterface comprising a representation of the respective landing pagecontent; observing user interactions in a distributed computer system;storing the first content request as a stored content request; deciding,responsive to at least one of the group comprising: the stored contentrequest and the observed user interactions, to update the presentationinterface; identifying, responsive to at least one of the groupcomprising: the stored content request and the observed userinteractions, one or more third-party publishers from which to requestlanding page content; requesting, responsive to at least one of thegroup comprising: the stored content request and the observed userinteractions, respective landing page content from each of theidentified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respectivelanding page content from each of the identified one or more third-partypublishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphicaluser interface a presentation interface comprising a representation ofthe respective landing page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprising a client component configured to accept a firstcontent request; transmit the first content request to a publishingplatform; receive landing page content responsive to the first contentrequest; and display within a portion of at least one graphical userinterface a presentation interface comprising a representation of thereceived landing page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;and display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content, wherein the landing page content is arranged inone or more of the formats comprising the group of: horizontal tabs,vertical tabs, carousel, multi-pane, staggered, or stacked.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;and display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content, wherein the landing page content is arranged inone or more of the formats comprising the group of: landing pagethumbnail, loaded landing page, landing page icon, or image representingthe landing page.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacecomprises a first content display area having an initial control thataccepts the first content request; accept, from a user interacting withthe initial control area of the first content display area, the firstcontent request; transmit the first content request to a publisherassociated with the first content display area; receive the content fromthe publisher associated with the first content display area; anddisplay, within the first content display area, the content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacecomprises a first content display area having an initial control thataccepts the first content request and a second content display area;accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of thefirst content display area, the first content request; transmit thefirst content request to a publisher associated with the first contentdisplay area; receive the content from the publisher associated with thefirst content display area; display, within the first content displayarea, the content; and display, within the second content display area,the landing page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;and display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content, wherein the first content display area is a webpage.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacecomprises a first content display area having an initial control thataccepts the first content request; accept, from a user interacting withthe initial control area of the first content display area, the firstcontent request; transmit the first content request to a publisherassociated with the first content display area; receive the content fromthe publisher associated with the first content display area; anddisplay, within the first content display area, the content, wherein thefirst content display area is a web page.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content; accept, from a user interacting with the initialcontrol area of the first content display area, a second contentrequest; transmit the second content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the second content request;and display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacecomprises a first content display area having an initial control thataccepts the first content request; accept, from a user interacting withthe initial control area of the first content display area, the firstcontent request; transmit the first content request to a publisherassociated with the first content display area; receive the content fromthe publisher associated with the first content display area; display,within the first content display area, the content; accept, from a userinteracting with the initial control area of the first content displayarea, a second content request; transmit the second content request to apublishing platform; receive content from the publisher associated withthe first content display area; and display, within the first contentdisplay area, the content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacecomprises a first content display area having an initial control thataccepts the first content request and a second content display area;accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of thefirst content display area, the first content request; transmit thefirst content request to a publisher associated with the first contentdisplay area; receive the content from the publisher associated with thefirst content display area; display, within the first content displayarea, the content; display, within the second content display area, thelanding page content; accept, from a user interacting with the initialcontrol area of the first content display area, a second contentrequest; transmit the second content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the second content request;and display, within the second display area, the landing page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacecomprises a first content display area having an initial control thataccepts the first content request and a second content display area;accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of thefirst content display area, the first content request; transmit thefirst content request to a publisher associated with the first contentdisplay area; receive the content from the publisher associated with thefirst content display area; display, within the first content displayarea, the content; display, within the second content display area, thelanding page content; accept, from a user interacting with the initialcontrol area of the first content display area, a second contentrequest; transmit the second content request to a publishing platform;receive content from the publisher associated with the first contentdisplay area; display, within the first content display area, thecontent; receive landing page content responsive to the second contentrequest; and display, within the second display area, the landing pagecontent.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacecomprises a first content display area having an initial control thataccepts the first content request and a second content display area;accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of thefirst content display area, the first content request; transmit thefirst content request to a publisher associated with the first contentdisplay area; receive the content from the publisher associated with thefirst content display area; display, within the first content displayarea, the content; display, within the second content display area, thelanding page content; accept, from a user interacting with the initialcontrol area of the first content display area, a second contentrequest; transmit the second content request to a publishing platform;receive content from the publisher associated with the first contentdisplay area; display, within the first content display area, thecontent; receive landing page content responsive to the second contentrequest; and display, within the second display area, the landing pagecontent.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacecomprises a first content display area having an initial control thataccepts the first content request and a second content display area;accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of thefirst content display area, the first content request; transmit thefirst content request to a publisher associated with the first contentdisplay area; receive the content from the publisher associated with thefirst content display area; display, within the first content displayarea, the content; display, within the second content display area, thelanding page content; accept, from a user interacting with an initialcontrol area of a landing page in the second content display area, asecond content request; transmit the second content request to apublishing platform; receive content from the publisher associated withthe first content display area; and display, within the first contentdisplay area, the content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacecomprises a first content display area having an initial control thataccepts the first content request and a second content display area;accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of thefirst content display area, the first content request; transmit thefirst content request to a publisher associated with the first contentdisplay area; receive the content from the publisher associated with thefirst content display area; display, within the first content displayarea, the content; display, within the second content display area, thelanding page content; accept, from a user interacting with an initialcontrol area of a landing page in the second content display area, asecond content request; transmit the second content request to apublishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to thesecond content request; and display, within the second display area, thelanding page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interfacecomprises a first content display area having an initial control thataccepts the first content request and a second content display area;accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of thefirst content display area, the first content request; transmit thefirst content request to a publisher associated with the first contentdisplay area; receive the content from the publisher associated with thefirst content display area; display, within the first content displayarea, the content; display, within the second content display area, thelanding page content; accept, from a user interacting with an initialcontrol area of a landing page in the second content display area, asecond content request; transmit the second content request to apublishing platform; receive content from the publisher associated withthe first content display area; display, within the first contentdisplay area, the content; receive landing page content responsive tothe second content request; and display, within the second display area,the landing page content.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computersystem comprises a client component configured to accept a first contentrequest; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform;receive landing page content responsive to the first content request;

display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface apresentation interface comprising a representation of the receivedlanding page content; and observe user interactions in a distributedcomputer system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are not drawn to scale. In the drawings, eachidentical or nearly identical component that is illustrated in variousfigures is represented by a like numeral. For purposes of clarity, notevery component may be labeled in every drawing. In the drawings:

FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of an exemplary system in accordance withone embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram of an exemplary system in accordance withone embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1C is a schematic diagram of an exemplary system in accordance withone embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary system diagram in accordance with one embodimentof the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary system architecture diagram in accordance withone embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary process for delivering landing pagecontent in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5A illustrates an exemplary interface for displaying landing pagecontent in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5B illustrates an exemplary interface for displaying landing pagecontent in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5C illustrates an exemplary interface for displaying landing pagecontent in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5D illustrates an exemplary interface for displaying landing pagecontent in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5E illustrates an exemplary interface for displaying landing pagecontent in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6A illustrates an exemplary interface for depicting landing pagecontent in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6B illustrates an exemplary interface for depicting landing pagecontent in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6C illustrates an exemplary interface for depicting landing pagecontent in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary interface for displaying an initialcontrol in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary process for delivering landing pagecontent in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 9 is an exemplary system diagram in accordance with one embodimentof the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

Embodiments of this invention are not limited in their application tothe details of construction and the arrangement of components set forthin the following description or illustrated in the drawings. Embodimentsof the invention are capable of other embodiments and of being practicedor of being carried out in various ways. Also, the phraseology andterminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should notbe regarded as limiting. The use of “including,” “comprising,” “having,”“containing,” “involving,” and variations thereof herein is meant toencompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well asadditional items.

As discussed herein, a “content request” may include user-drivensearches for content (e.g. by a user interacting with a search box,controls, sliders, buttons, and other tools within a user interface),user actions (e.g. clicking on links, tags, and other interactivematerial), saved search for content from prior sessions, a prior searchrefreshed after a specified time, searches driven by applications andrules (e.g. behavioral, contextual, or other targeting software),searches driven by predictions or predictive software algorithms, or anyother command or action by a person or a machine intended to retrievecontent from an interactive site. In some embodiments, a content requestmay take the form of a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or secureHypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS) request to a web server.

As discussed herein, a “landing page presentation interface” displaysrepresentations of one or more landing pages from various websites. Thelanding pages may be requested with custom Uniform Resource Locator(URL) information communicated over HTTP that passes a content requestto a website publishing platform. The landing page may be presented in avariety of manners, including but not limited to: as a web pageemploying Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), as a display rendered in auser interface, and as an application on a mobile computing device.

As discussed herein, a “publisher” may publish a website (e.g. a travelor e-commerce website), a mobile application environment, or any otherinteractive content available over a network. The publisher may selladvertising or may employ content delivery networks (e.g. advertisingnetworks) in order to deliver website and other interactive content tousers. A publisher may offer to sell content delivery services, such asadvertising. Interactive and web content may be delivered as a landingpage. As it relates to the publisher of a website, the term “third-partypublisher” may include other websites, other mobile applications, othergaming sites, and other interactive publishers that may barter for,trade, share, or purchase content delivery services (e.g. advertising,landing pages, and the like) from the publisher.

As discussed herein, a “website” may include any number of interactivecontent sites available on the Internet or other electronic network.Websites may be constructed using a variety of languages and protocols,including HTML, the JavaScript programming language, extensible markuplanguage (XML), asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax), JavaScriptObject Notation (JSON), JavaScript Object Notation with padding (JSONP),and others. Users may interact with websites with a web browser or adedicated software application (e.g. a mobile application).

As discussed herein the terms “publishing platform” and “publishingsystem” refer broadly to interactive online platforms for contentmanagement, decision processes, and delivery.

A “publishing platform” or “publishing system” may include web servers,content servers, caching systems, advertising servers, advertisingnetworks, content delivery networks, and so forth as operated by avariety of parties. The terms “publishing platform” and “publishingsystem” are not intended to be limiting or to refer to operation by asingle entity, such as a publisher, and more than one entity (e.g.multiple publishers) may operate within a single “publishing platform”or “publishing system.”

Landing Pages

According to an aspect, various embodiments of systems and methodsdisclosed herein address a variety of “landing page” models. A landingpage is a web page that is displayed as the result of a content request,such as when a user selects (e.g., by “clicking on” with a pointingdevice such as a mouse) a content link displayed within the webpage.According to another aspect, the content request may result from anapplication or software running within a distributed computing system.

A “click-in” landing page includes content that links the user to alanding page within the publisher's website, for example, where a thirdparty (e.g. a third-party publisher wishing to drive user traffic to awebsite) pays for placing content on the publisher's website. Apublisher and/or a third-party publisher may provide the content (orcreative content) of the click-in landing page. For example, if a userclicks on the linked content for flat screen TVs, the user may bepresented with a new web page within the publisher's website listingflat screen TVs from a specific manufacturer for sale. In this case themanufacturer (i.e., third-party publisher) may be considered a paidsponsor of the landing page.

A “click-out” landing page includes interactive content that links theuser to a landing page specified by a third-party publisher (e.g., a webpage on an third-party publisher's website). For example, a user maysearch for “red shoes” on a shopping website and may see an ad for redshoes at Zappos.com—if the user clicks on the Zappos interactivecontent, he or she may be redirected to a landing page at Zappos.comresponsive to the search for “red shoes.”

A landing page may be “pre loaded” in that a publisher, an intermediarynetwork, or another party may load a landing page into a display forpresentation instead of a traditional text or image link. For example,instead of a text link indicating “Search for red shoes at Zappos” or animage link showing a red shoe above the Zappos logo, with both linkspointing to a landing page at the Zappos site, according to one aspectof the present disclosure, a pre-loaded landing page may include an iconrepresenting the landing page, a thumbnail image of the landing page asdelivered, or a full version of the landing page presented in either thesame or a separate display area. Conventionally, this type of landingpage content has been displayed either in a separate tab or a popoutwindow within a web browser.

The inventors have recognized, among other things, that a key challengefor content publishers may include presenting “click-out” landing pagesin a “click-in” model. The technical challenge is for publishers toretain control over user attention in an interactive (e.g. web orInternet) computing environment as the publisher displays content, suchas landing pages, from competing third-party publishers. As withtraditional “click-in” approaches, the landing pages may be displayed bythe publisher or by an intermediary network, such as a content deliverynetwork or an advertising network. The “click-in” landing pages may bepresented in formats that enable a publisher to offer additionalfeatures and capabilities, potentially at a premium, to third parties. Apublisher may be able to charge third-party publishers more for a“click-in” landing page displayed in a custom navigation window orinterface.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a new userinterface is provided that permits more efficient user interaction withthird-party provided content. For instance, the interface may provide acontrol that permits the user to more efficiently navigate throughlanding page content from multiple third-party publishers. Such contentmay be loaded responsive to a single action (e.g., a search on thepublisher's website or an action taken by a user within the userinterface). Further, the landing page content may be periodicallyupdated based on a single user action performed in association withanyone of the landing page content sets. For instance, a user action inone landing page content window may cause the others to be updated(e.g., in the case of travel search, search parameters may be used togenerate updated landing page content within each of the landing pagecontent sets). Because less user interaction is required to updatecontent, the interface is easier and more efficient for a user tooperate.

System Overview

According to one aspect of the present invention, a system and methodenables a publisher to display landing pages, from third-partypublishers, in a display area. As discussed above, a problem unique toInternet publishers is that low conversion rates (e.g., in the 3%-5%range) and other user valuation metrics lead many publishers to displaycontent from third-party publishers (e.g., links to landing pages andother forms of landing page content as discussed herein) to generateadditional revenue.

According to one embodiment, the presented landing pages may include,among other things, depictions of landing pages, thumbnails, icons, andfully-loaded landing page content. According to one embodiment, thelanding pages may be presented in a variety of formats, including:horizontal tabs, vertical tabs, carousel, multi-pane, staggered,stacked, and so forth as well as any combination thereof. In variousembodiments, improved interfaces are provided for presenting andupdating landing page content.

According to one embodiment, a user may specifically request contentfrom a publisher. In other embodiments, the system and method may enablea publisher to display content and/or third-party landing pages withoutrequiring a user to directly request content, such as in publishingsystems employing behavioral targeting, contextual targeting,retargeting, and other approaches. In yet other embodiments, an earliercontent search may be coupled with other content targeting approaches toload landing pages.

In various embodiments, landing page content may be refreshed under avariety of circumstances. For example, if a user is inactive or isvisiting other sites for a period of time, a publisher may refresh thethird-party landing pages to accommodate for the user's activities or tosimply provide updated content, pricing information, and the like. Thus,according to various embodiments, the refreshing of third party landingpages may allow the interface to be more user-friendly and operate moreefficiently requiring less user input. In some embodiments, a secondcontent request on the publisher's site may lead to updates on thethird-party landing pages. In yet other embodiments, a user may requestnew content on one of the third-party landing pages, and a publisher ora user may elect to update the displayed landing pages from the otherthird-party sites. In embodiments, with each new content request, apublisher decision engine may elect which third-party landing pages, ifany, to update and display. In some further embodiments a publisher or auser may opt to close landing pages from previously-presentedthird-party publishers and may select different third-party publishersfrom which to request landing page content.

According to one embodiment, a publisher may observe or track userbehavior. The tracked user behavior may include: interactions in adistributed computing environment, interactions with controls and linkswithin a graphical user interface, alphanumeric inputs, spoken inputs,user activity and timeouts, and so forth. In a further embodiment, auser may specify the behavior of a landing page display, including thelayout of the landing pages, the mode of user interaction (e.g. tabs,carousel, stacked, and so forth), timeouts, refreshes, preferredthird-party publishers, and so forth.

FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C illustrate a schematic overview of exemplary systemsaccording to embodiments of the disclosure. Shown is an interface of aclient computer 101A, 101B or 101C, such as a web browser, a publisher103A, 103B or 103C of a travel website, a publishing platform 105A, 105Bor 105C, and a third-party publisher 107A, 107B or 107C, such as anothertravel website. Publishing platform 105A, 105B or 105C may be a computerserver or a distributed computer system on which various embodiments ofthe present disclosure may be implemented, including, but not limitedto, presenting display areas and control interfaces to users, processingcontent requests, deciding which third-party publishers from which torequest content, requesting third-party content, assembling landingpages from one or more third-party publishers, and presenting landingpages to a user in a display area. In some embodiments, based upon aninteraction with a publishing platform 105A, 105B or 105C the interface101A, 101B or 101C may request landing page content directly from one ormore third-party publishers, open a display interface, assemble landingpages from one or more third-party publishers, and/or present thelanding pages to a user in a display area.

There may be more than one interface 101A, 101B or 101C, associated witha publisher 103A-C, and one or more third-party publishers 107A-C.Publisher 103A, 103B or 103C provides one or more web pages (not shown)to a user through interface 101A, 101B or 101C. For example, the userinteracts with the publisher's 103A, 103B or 103C travel website throughthe user interface to make a content request, such as for informationabout airline schedules, ticket prices, hotel room availability, orother item, by providing search terms 110A, 110B or 110C. The publisher103A, 103B or 103C may also, or alternatively, collect other informationabout or from the user. This information may be used to determinepotential content requests with or without the user entering searchterms 110A, 110B or 110C. Such information may relate to the user'sintent to purchase airline tickets on a specific day, or to a specificcity, or other similar travel-related details. For example, userinformation may also be based on user entry onto a site a specific time,or user information may be derived from a user's prior behavior or otherpredictive criteria associated with a user. It should be understood thatthe present disclosure is not limited to travel products but may includeany products sold, advertised, or distributed through electroniccommerce or other electronic sites.

Requesting Content From A Publisher

According to one embodiment as shown in FIG. 1A, a user may rely on aninterface 101A to interact with a publisher 103A website that mayincorporate a publishing platform 105A. The website may be hosted by thepublisher 103A or may be resident within the publishing platform 105A.The publishing platform addresses many of the higher-level functionsassociated with serving content and advertising, as well as decidingwhich content to display. The website may be built using a variety oftechnologies, including, but not limited to, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax andothers. The website may comprise a variety of components hosted bynumerous parties, such as web servers, ad servers, advertising networks,content delivery networks, distributed web services platforms (e.g.Amazon Web Services), and so forth. In some embodiments, the publisher103A and the publishing platform 105A are one and the same. In otherembodiments, the publisher 103A and the publishing platform 105A aredistinct, may be operated by different parties, and may be in differentphysical locations. In yet other embodiments, the publishing platform105A may include web hosting and cloud computing resources, and thepublishing platform 105A may include a variety of content services frompublishers as well as third-party publishers.

The user may request content—usually in the form of an HTTP or HTTPSrequest—such as by entering search terms 110A or other information. Thepublisher 103A sends the content request 112A to publishing platform105A, which uses the content request 112A to find the relevant content114A on the publishing platform. The interface 101A may also request thecontent directly from the publishing platform 105A.

The publishing platform 105A then displays the requested content in aweb page 116A within the user interface 101A. According to oneembodiment, the publisher 103A may generate a content request 112A basedupon a number of criteria, including, but not limited to, user behaviorand actions on the publisher's website. According to another embodiment,the user may not enter search terms 110A and the search terms maypopulate automatically. For example, if a user purchases an airlineticket on the publisher's website, the content request 112A may includea search for hotel rooms in the destination city on the days the userexpects to travel to that city.

FIGS. 1B and 1C also demonstrate similar content requests 112B or 112Cbased upon entering search terms 110B or 110C in a user interface 101Bor 101C such as a web browser. The publishing platform 105B or 105Clocates and presents content results 114B or 114C and displays thepublisher's content to the user 116B or 116C, in the interface 101B or101C.

Requesting Content from Third-Party Publishers

Various client-based and server-based approaches exist for requestingcontent from third-party publishers. Therefore, according to variousembodiments, various aspects of the invention may operate usingdifferent architecture. An embodiment employing a server architecture isshown in FIG. 1A; embodiments employing client-based architectures areillustrated in FIGS. 1B and 1C.

For example, in FIG. 1A, given the content request 112A, the publishingplatform may determine 118A from which, if any, third-party publishersto request landing page content. This decision 118A may incorporate avariety of inputs, including but not limited to: preferences and bidsfrom third-party publishers 107A, advertising tags, adservers, and soforth.

If the publishing platform 105A determines 118A to request third-partylanding pages, the publishing platform 105A then requests content fromthe selected third-party publishers 120A. In order to process thecontent request, the publishing platform 105A may determine anappropriate Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for a given content requestfrom a given third-party publisher 107A. The third-party publisher 107A,processes the request, locates third-party landing page content 122A,and presents the content to the publishing platform 105A, which thenassembles the respective third-party landing page content 124A in aformat for delivery to the user in a navigation window of the interface101A. The publishing platform 105A may control the assembly and deliveryof landing pages 124A, or this function may occur within the browser126B, with reference to FIG. 1B to be discussed below.

FIG. 1B illustrates a schematic overview of an exemplary systemaccording to embodiments of the disclosure. The publisher contentrequest 112B is displayed to a user 116B based upon search terms 110Bentered by a user or another party as discussed above. FIG. 1B differsfrom FIGS. 1A & 1C in that the interface 101B is directly involved inrequesting landing page content. At some point in time, before, after,or during the content request 112B from the publisher, the interface101B may also communicate directly with the publishing platform 105B,which may be operated by the publisher, an intermediary content deliveryor advertising network, third-party publishers, or combinations ofentities, to decide which third-party publishers to request landing pagecontent from 118B.

In one embodiment, when the publisher content is displayed to the user116B, that content may include a tag (e.g. a content delivery or anadvertising tag) in the HTML and JavaScript content delivered to theinterface 101B (e.g. a web browser). In other embodiments, the tag mayoriginate in the direct communication between the interface 101B and thepublishing platform 105B. The content delivery or advertising tag maythen be triggered by an event (e.g. an end user action, an action by anapplication, and so forth) to invoke, instantiate, or open a windowwithin the interface 101B. In some embodiments, the window may be openedwithin an already-open first display window. In other embodiments, thewindow may be opened in a second display window.

The interface 101B may then load necessary code (e.g. HTML, JavaScript,Ajax, etc.) to display in the manners discussed herein as referenced inFIGS. 5A-E, FIGS. 6A-C, and FIG. 7, below. For example, a user mayperform a search in a website, and a publisher may present content in anew page within the browser window. The publisher may also display anadditional navigation window for presenting landing pages fromthird-party publishers. The third-party landing page navigation windowmay include landing pages, or it may include an interface (e.g. checkboxes) so that the user may request landing pages from specificthird-party publishers.

The interface 101B may request landing page content, for example byusing JavaScript to construct an HTTP or HTTPS request for third-partylanding page content. Within the publishing platform 105B, an aspect mayinclude a content delivery network or an advertising network that mayreceive the request for third-party landing page content 120B, and afterperforming business logic to determine which third-party publishers torequest content from 118B, the content delivery or advertising networkmay format the request 120B for landing page content by determiningappropriate URL formats for specific third-party publishers. In FIG. 1B,the publishing platform 105B may (e.g. using HTML, JSON, and JSONP) passformatted URLs to the interface 101A which then requests the landingpage content from third-party publishers 120B. FIG. 1B shows anembodiment in which the request 120B is contained within the publishingplatform 105B; in other embodiments, the publishing platform 105B mayinclude webserving capabilities for a third-party publisher; and inother embodiments, the request 120B may occur outside the publishingplatform 105B and may instead be a direct communication between theinterface 101B and a third-party publisher 107B.

The third-party publisher 107B may then locate and present landing pagecontent 122B and communicate directly with the interface 101B anddisplay third-party landing pages to the user 126B. There may be anynumber of third party publishers 107B.

FIG. 1C illustrates a schematic overview of an exemplary systemaccording to embodiments of the disclosure. The functions of thepublishing platform 105A as referenced in FIG. 1A, above, is splitbetween a publishing platform 105C and a content delivery platform 109C,such as a content delivery server or an advertising server. Thepublishing platform 105C may communicate with the content deliveryplatform 109C through an application programming interface (API) inaddition to HTTP, HTTPS, JavaScript, Ajax and other protocols. The usermay enter search terms 110C, which are either communicated to thecontent delivery platform 109C directly by the interface 101C or throughthe API from the publishing platform 105C. At 118C, the content deliveryplatform 109C decides which third-party publishers to request landingpage content from. At 120C, the content delivery platform 109C requestslanding page content from third-party publishers 107C. The contentdelivery platform 109C may request the landing page content from thethird-party publisher 107C by rendering the request in a custom URLformat tailored to pass the search terms to the publisher in a formatthat the third-party publisher's 107C platform will recognize. In otherembodiments, the interface 101C may, directly request landing pagecontent 120C from third-party publisher as shown by 120B as discussed inreference to FIG. 1B above.

Once the third-party publisher 107C has located the landing pagecontent, it may present 122C the landing page content directly to theinterface 101C where the third-party landing pages are displayed 126C tothe user.

FIG. 2 illustrates various interactions of an exemplary system accordingto various embodiments of the disclosure. In comparison to theembodiments shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 further demonstrates a systemincluding multiple third-party publishers 206 that may deliver landingpage content as presented to a user by a display 200. Display 200,publishing platform 204, and third-party publisher 206 may each include,respectively, display 101A, 101B or 101C, publisher 103A, 103B or 103Cpublishing platform 105A, 105B or 105C, content delivery platform 109C,and third-party publisher 107A, 107B or 107C as referenced in FIGS.1A-C, above.

As shown, the display 200 presents one or more display areas. First,display 200 provides publisher content 201, for example, one or more webpages, which may be viewed within a web browser operating on a clientcomputer of a user (not shown). Second, display 200 also providesthird-party landing pages 203, which may be viewed within a web browseroperating on client computer of a user (not shown). The third-partylanding pages 203 may also be viewed in another display area. Publishercontent 201 and third-party landing pages 203 may be presented in adisplay 200 that may include interface 101A-C as referenced in FIGS.1A-C, above.

Also, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 1A-C above, those skilled inthe art will recognize that the interaction between the display 200,publishing platform 204, and third-party publishers 206 is not fixed,and the display 200 may communicate directly with a third-partypublisher 206 to request and receive landing page content. In someembodiments, the request by the display 200 may be informed by aninteraction with the publishing platform 204.

A publishing platform 204 includes a system 205 for delivering contentin an online environment. System 205 may include, but is not limited to,an online auction for providing access to display 200 from one or morethird-party publishers 206. System 205 may also include one or morecomponents adapted to identify and serve content including landing pages207 to display 200 to be displayed to a visitor viewing the web pages.Third-party publishers 206 provide one or more landing pages 207 tosystem 205 for display to a user within a device display. Also, thesystem 205 may include a publishing platform 105C and a content deliveryplatform 109C as referenced in FIG. 1C above.

In one embodiment, system 205 determines and serves, based on criteriathat may include, but is not limited to: a content request, observeduser behavior, or user-generated information from display 200,appropriate third-party publishers 206 from which to request respectivethird-party landing pages 207 to be displayed in addition to publishercontent 201.

Exemplary System Architecture

FIG. 3 shows an architecture diagram of an example system 300 accordingto one embodiment of the invention. System 300 may, for instance, be oneimplementation of the system discussed above with reference to FIG. 2.It should be appreciated that FIG. 3 is used for illustration purposesonly, and that other architectures may also be used to facilitate one ormore aspects of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, a distributed system 300 may be used to display oneor more web pages and landing pages to a user within a travel site.According to one embodiment, system 300 may include one or morecomponents that operate in cooperation with the travel site. Thecomponents may include one or more client systems 302 and a publishingsystem 304. For example, these components may execute on one or morecomputer systems associated with or interconnected to a publisher of atravel site. System 300 may include one or more processes that respondto requests from one or more client programs, such as a web browser or amobile application. Process may include, for example, an HTTP server orother server-based process (e.g., a database server process, XML server,peer-to-peer process) that interfaces to one or more client programsdistributed among one or more client systems. One or more third-partypublishers 306 may interact with publishing system 304 to presentlanding page content to a display on a client system 302.

According to one embodiment, one or more client systems 302 may becapable of displaying web browsers and landing pages to users. Theclient systems 302 may include, for example, any type of operatingsystem and/or application program capable of communicating with othercomputer systems through a communication network, such as the Internet.In one particular instance, the client system 302 may include a browserapplication program that communicates with one or more server processesusing one or more communication protocols (e.g., HTTP over aTCP/IP-based network, XML requests using HTTP through an Ajax clientprocess, distributed objects, etc.).

The client system 302 may include one or more interfaces 310 throughwhich web pages may be presented to the user. In one example, web pagesmay be presented in an interface of a browser program executing on aclient computer system. The client system 302 may also include anavigator interface 312 for displaying multiple landing pages fromthird-party publishers. In one embodiment, the navigator interface 312may be displayed in an interface associated with a publisher web sitewithin an interface 310 of the browser program.

According to another embodiment, the publishing system 304 receives oneor more content requests 314 from a publisher through the client system302, and one or more landing pages 318 from one or more third-partypublishers 306. The publishing system 304 serves requested content to apublisher, which in turn displays the requested content to user through,for example, interface 310. The publishing system 304 also servesthird-party landing pages to the publisher, which in turn displays thethird-party landing pages to a user through, for example, navigatorinterface 312. The publishing system 304 may include the followingcomponents: a web engine 320, a content management engine 322, adecision engine 324, and a landing page presentation engine 326. Thepublishing system 304 also includes, a web publishing database 330, acontent management database 332, and a decision database 334.

In various embodiments, different structures, may perform the role of astate machine, monitoring application state as it relates to useractivity, inputs and so forth with respect to the display interfaces. Insome embodiments, this also relates to re-displaying searches, andupdating search information from one landing page to another. In someembodiments, the publishing system 304 may include the publishingplatform 105A as referenced in FIG. 1A above. Because the publishingplatform 105A presents landing page content to the user, the publishingplatform 105A may monitor user behavior on specific landing pages andprovide updates to other landing pages from third-party publishers aswell as the first display window associated with a publisher.

In some embodiments, the task of maintaining application state may fallto the client system 302, the publishing system 304, or a combination ofthe two. For example, the publishing system 304 may include thepublishing platform 105B as referenced in FIG. 1B above. Whilethird-party publishers 107B display respective landing pages to user126B, the interface 101B receives communication, from the publishingplatform 105B, that may include instructions to open a display interfacefor landing page content. The publishing platform 105B decides whichthird-party publishers to request content from 118B, and thenestablishes communication with the interface 101B, which may includesending landing page URLs to use when the interface 101B directlyrequests landing page content from third-party publishers 120B.

In yet other embodiments, the publishing system 304 may include thepublishing platform 105C and content delivery platform 109C asreferenced in FIG. 1C, above. Here, the content delivery platform 109Cmay play as similar role to the publishing platform 105B as referencedin FIG. 1B, above, and the content delivery platform 109C may monitorapplication state, the client system 302 may monitor application state,or the two structure may share various aspects of this task.

As will be described in greater detail below, the web engine 320processes content requests 314 and searches the web publishing database330 for the requested content and presents it to the publisher, whichpresents the requested content to the client system 302 for display inthe interface 310. The web engine 320 also translates the contentrequest 314 and passes the request to the content management engine 322,which searches the content management database 332 to determine whatinformation to present to the user through the interface 310 and whattypes of landing page content to request, if any, from a third-partypublisher 306. According to one embodiment, the content managementengine 322 may incorporate or respond to content management oradvertising serving (adserving) code resident on the web page or the website as referenced in the web engine 320. Possible methods forincorporating adserving code include tag managers, ad servers, or othercontent management systems. According to one embodiment, the web engine320 may observe various user behaviors, as a user interacts with thepublisher's site and may pass that information to the content managementengine 322, which the content management engine 322 may then store inthe content management database 332.

According to one embodiment, the content management engine 322 andcontent management database 332 may incorporate observed user behaviors,user preferences, prior user content requests, as well as targeting andretargeting capabilities. In one example, a user may specify whichthird-party publishers he or she prefers to visit. In another example,the content management database 332 may contain information about usersand their activities, including content requests, and the contentmanagement engine 322 may pass a saved content request to the web engine320 so that a returning user may see an interface 310 displaying theresults of an earlier content request. According to one embodiment, thecontent management engine 322 may connect to a retargeting platform oran advertising network.

The content management engine 322 translates requests and passes them tothe decision engine 324, which determines from which third-partypublishers 306 to request landing page content 316. At the publisher'soption, the decision engine 324 is also capable of dynamicallysuppressing landing page content for any particular page view, such aswhen a user is forecasted as highly likely to purchase on the currentsite. In one embodiment, when the user is determined likely to purchasean item, the system is adapted to suppress competing landing pagecontent from any third-party publisher.

The decision engine 324 operates in conjunction with the decision enginedatabase 334 to employ predictive models to compute the expectedtransaction value associated with a current page view, factoring anumber of runtime attributes, including a calculation of user intent,landing page bids, other preferences shared by third-party publishers306, and other factors. The decision engine 324 may include one or moreof the following sub-systems: a proprietary adserver (or equivalent)built by the publisher; a 3rd party adserver (or equivalent) that apublisher is licensing for their own use; an adserver (or equivalent)offered by an advertising network or advertising platform; or anadserver (or equivalent) offered by an ad exchange; or some otherequivalent component. Ultimately, the decision engine 324 is responsiblefor making sure third-party publishers 306 are matched to landing pagecontent requests 314 and 316 according to all the constraints of thepublishing system 304, making sure that users receive optimal landingpage content, based on system optimization functions. The decisionengine 324 may also use an auction, or another algorithm, to determinewhich landing page content to request.

The decision database 334 may include information about third-partypublishers, landing page inventory, potential bids for landing pagedisplays, and so forth. The decision engine 324 may incorporate thisinformation, among other things, in determining from which third-partypublisher 306 to request 316 landing page content 318. The request maytake the form of a custom URL that passes content request data to athird-party publisher 306.

The publishing system 304 receives landing page content 318 from athird-party publisher 306 and assembles, within the landing pagepresentation engine 326, landing page content for presentation to thepublisher. The publisher then passes the formatted landing page contentto the client system 302 for presentation in the navigator interface312. The landing page presentation engine 326 may include various webservers, content delivery servers, advertising servers, and so forth,and various parties may control various aspects of the landing pagepresentation engine 326. In some embodiments, such as those illustratedin FIG. 1A, above, the landing page presentation engine 326 may bewithin the control of a publisher. In other embodiments, such as thoseillustrated in FIGS. 1B and 1C, above, the landing page presentationengine 326 may include a web server operated by a third-party publisher,with each landing page presented to the client system 302 and renderedas a web page within the presentation interface such as a web browser.

Exemplary Method

FIG. 4 shows one embodiment of a process for delivering landing pages400. Process 400 may be, for instance, one implementation of system 300as discussed above with reference to FIG. 3. Process 400 begins at startblock 402. At block 404 the publisher of a travel website receives acontent request. According to one embodiment, the content request maycome from a user interacting with a browser 310 on a client system 302as referenced in FIG. 3, above. According to another embodiment, thecontent request may come from a content management engine 322, alsoreferenced in FIG. 3 above, responding to a set of rules defined by apublisher. For example, a publisher may determine a set of behaviorssuggesting an intent to purchase a hotel room—the publisher mayimplement a rule at that decision point to request content related torental cars and to display that content along with the hotel reservationinformation. For instance, the content may be displayed in a separatewindow, below the content, or in any other window and/or orientationwith the display. Block 404 initiates two steps indicated by block 406and block 412.

At block 406, the publishing system accepts the content request andsearches for content on, for example, the web engine 320 and webpublishing database 330 as referenced in FIG. 3, above. At block 408,the publishing system determines which, of the requested and retrievedcontent, to present to the user. The decision at block 408 mayincorporate intelligence, such as behavioral and contextual inputs,targeting, retargeting, and network information available from thecontent management engine 322 as referenced in FIG. 3 above. At block410, the publishing system presents content to a user in a display, suchas a web page as shown in browser 310 on a client system 302 asreferenced in FIG. 3 above.

At block 412, as initiated by block 406, the publishing systemdetermines whether to request landing page content from one or more of anumber of third-party publishers. According to one embodiment, thethird-party publishers may be travel websites on which a user may becomparison shopping for an airline ticket. The step at block 412 may beperformed by decision engine 324 as referenced in FIG. 3 above. Once thepublishing system has determined from which third-party publishers torequest landing page content, at block 414, that request is passed toeach of the respective third-party publishers, either: (a) directly, bycontacting each third-party publisher, (b) indirectly, by contacting anintermediary network, such as an advertising network; or (c) directly byprocessing HTTP requests from a client, such as a client system 302 or abrowser 310 as referenced in FIG. 3 above.

At block 416, the publishing system receives landing page content fromthird-party publishers. At block 418, the publishing system assembleslanding page content for presentation in a display area, such asnavigator interface 312 as referenced in FIG. 3 above. At block 420, thepublishing system passes the landing page content to the publisher,which presents the landing page content, such as that contained withinnavigator interface 312, to the user. The steps at 416, 418, and 420 mayeach be performed by a structure such as landing page presentationengine 326 as referenced in FIG. 3 above.

At block 422, process 400 ends.

It is worth noting that, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 1A-C andFIG. 3, above, other structures, including client software, web browsersand the like may also perform steps of process 400 as described in FIG.4.

Presentation of Landing Pages

The inventors have recognized that the presentation of landing pagecontent is important in comparison shopping, because only 3-5% of usersbuy in a given session, and even minor improvements in shopperconversion can lead to tremendous benefits for publishers. In comparisonto conventional approaches (e.g. browser windows and tabs), theinventors have recognized an opportunity to make it easier for users toview and navigate multiple landing pages at once.

According to one embodiment, landing page content from one or morethird-party publishers may be rendered in a browser window, such as thebrowser window from which a user makes a content request. According toanother embodiment, landing page content may be rendered as an overlayor a lightbox display. According to one embodiment, landing page contentmay be displayed in a second display area, and in embodiments, thedisplay area may be presented in front of or behind the first displayarea (e.g. the window from which the user made the original contentrequest). In another embodiment, landing page content may be displayedin a new browser tab or window. In yet another embodiment, when userfocus is on a publisher web page, landing page content may be displayedseparately in focus or out of focus with respect to a user, and thelanding page presentation interface may receive user input (e.g.selection with a cursor, keyboard input, or text entry). In a furtherembodiment, when user focus is on a landing page provided by athird-party content provider, landing page content from otherthird-party content providers may be displayed as a representation of alanding page within the presentation interface. In one embodiment,landing page content may be displayed as one or more fully-loadedlanding pages.

According to one embodiment, a user may specify how third-party landingpage content displays. According to another embodiment, a user mayspecify from which third-party publishers a publisher should requestlanding page content. According to another embodiment, variousthird-party publishers may specify how (e.g. in a popover or popunderbrowser window) landing page content is displayed.

According to one embodiment, a user may interact with a landing page ina display, and as a result of that interaction, the landing page maysubsequently display in a dedicated display area, such as a browser tabor a dedicated browser window (e.g., a popout window).

Additional embodiments addressing the presentation and display oflanding page content are discussed below.

FIGS. 5A-5E show various embodiments of landing pages arrayed in adisplay area. FIGS. 5A, 5B, 5D and 5E show three landing pages, and FIG.SC shows four landing pages; however any number of landing pages ispossible in any of the display areas shown in FIGS. 5A-5E. According toone embodiment, a user makes a first content request in a first displaywindow (e.g. a web browser) associated with a publisher (e.g. apublisher of a web site). Upon receiving this content request, thepublisher decides, as discussed in the exemplary method as referenced inFIG. 4, above, whether to display landing page content from third-partypublishers. The publisher, the publishing platform, an intermediarynetwork (e.g. a content delivery network or an advertising network), ora user then selects the third-party publishers from which to requestlanding page content. Upon receipt of landing page content, thepublisher, or an intermediary such as a network (e.g. a content deliverynetwork, an advertising network) arranges the landing pages forpresentation in a variety of array formats. Landing page content may bedisplayed in the first display area or a second display area asdescribed above. Notably, the landing page content is derived frommultiple third-party publishers is presented within a navigation areathat makes it easier for users to view alternate content that is updatedin real-time.

FIG. 5A depicts an embodiment of a display area 500A with landing pagesarrayed in a carousel format in which a user may rotate through theavailable landing pages 501A, 502A, and 503A by gesturing with a mouse,finger, or other element. In comparison to conventional approaches,which often limit display to a single browser or tab, the carouseldisplay offers the benefit of allowing a user to see multiple landingpages while focusing on a specific one. The user may also rotate throughthe landing pages by selecting an arrow button 510A at either side ofthe display. As shown in FIG. 5A, landing page 502A is displayed in thecenter of the carousel and is the current focus of the user's attention.

FIG. 5B depicts an embodiment of a display area 500B with landing pagesarrayed in a tiled or multi-pane format in which a user sees one or morelanding pages 501B, 502B, and 503B in a set of vertical or horizontalpanes inside the browser window. In comparison to conventionalapproaches, which often limit display to a single browser or tab, thetiled or multi-pane display offers the benefit of allowing a user to seemultiple landing pages while focusing on a specific one. Upon selectinga landing page, the selected landing page may be enlarged, presented infront of the other landing pages, popped out, or otherwise displayed tothe user.

FIG. 5C depicts an embodiment of a display area 500C with landing pagesarrayed in a horizontal tab format in which a user may select a tab(e.g. by clicking on the tab) to view the available landing pages 501C,502C, and 503C. In comparison to conventional approaches, which limitthe available display options for information within a given tab, thetab format offers publishers the ability to display images as well astext in the displayed tab of an unfocused window. Upon selecting alanding page, the selected landing page may be presented in front of theother landing pages. As shown in FIG. 5C, landing page 501C is displayedon top of the tab display and is the current focus of the user'sattention. One or more of the landing pages 502C, 503C, or 504C asrepresented by the tabs may be preloaded when the display area is firstinstantiated or may optionally be loaded only once the user selects thecorresponding tab.

FIG. 5D depicts an embodiment of a display area 500D with landing pagesarrayed in a stacked or staggered format in which a user sees thelanding pages staggered or stacked on top of each other. The user mayselect (e.g. by clicking on) one of the available landing pages 501D,502D, and 503D. In comparison to conventional approaches, which oftenlimit display to a single browser or tab, the stacked or staggereddisplay offers the benefit of allowing a user to see multiple landingpages while focusing on a specific one. Upon selecting a landing page,the selected landing page may be presented in front of the other landingpages. As shown in FIG. 5D, landing page 501D is displayed on top of thestack or staggered display and is the current focus of the user'sattention.

FIG. 5E depicts an embodiment of a display area 500E with landing pagesarrayed in a vertical tab format in which a user may select a tab (e.g.by clicking on the tab) to view the available landing pages 501E, 502E,and 503E. In comparison to conventional approaches, which limit theavailable display options for information within a given tab, the tabformat offers publishers the ability to display images as well as textin the displayed tab of an unfocused window. Upon selecting a landingpage, the selected landing page may be presented in front of the otherlanding pages. As shown in FIG. 5E, landing page 501E is displayed ontop of the tab display and is the current focus of the user's attention.As with FIG. 5C, the landing page for each tab may be pre-loaded upondisplay instantiation, or loading may be deferred until user selects anysuch tab. In one embodiment, the multiple sets of landing page content,may be updated in real time, and may be responsive to additional userinput, changes in parameters, historical data and/or other third partydata sources, or other criteria.

According to one embodiment, the display area may incorporate visualcues to indicate to the user that the system is loading landing pagecontent. According to one embodiment, a user may select a control withinthe interface to enlarge a specific display area. In another embodiment,a user may see a swipe prompt at the top of a display area, with theswipe prompt encouraging the user to view additional landing pages byswiping an interactive gesture across the display interface.

According to one embodiment, the display area incorporating multiplelanding pages may include multiple distinct display areas, arranged soas to give the perception to the end user of a fully-integrated landingpage navigation display. For example, in certain web browsers, such asApple's Safari browser, iFrame security rules embedded within thebrowser prevent a publisher from displaying landing page content in themethods described above. In one embodiment, a publishing platform 105Aas referenced in FIG. 1A, above, may render a display area so that itappears that each landing page is displayed in the same window(including positioning and sizing all relevant windows correctly) eventhough the publishing platform 105A actually renders the landing pagecontent as separate windows.

FIGS. 6A-6C shows various embodiments of landing page depictions in adisplay area. FIG. 6A shows an embodiment of a pre-loaded landing pagein a carousel array within display area 600A. The center pre-loadedlanding page 601A is in focus and is presented to the user. The othertwo landing pages 602A and 603A are also pre-loaded with the landingpage content and are displayed behind the center pre-loaded landing page601A and may be darkened or displayed in a manner so as to convey thatthese pages are not the focus page. Control buttons 610A are visible infront of landing pages 602A and 603A.

FIG. 6B shows an embodiment of a pre-loaded landing page in a tile ormulti-pane array with a display area 600B. The primary pre-loadedlanding page 601B is the focus of the user's attention and is displayedin a larger tile or pane. The secondary landing page 602B is alsopre-loaded with landing page content but is displayed in a smaller tileor pane. A user may direct his or her attention to the secondary landingpage 602B by selecting the “expand” button 610B within the display.Alternatively, a user may further select landing page 601B by selectingthe “expand” button 610B, which may cause the landing page 601B to popout or to display in a separate window.

FIG. 6C shows an embodiment of a pre-loaded landing page in a horizontaltab array within a display area 600C. The primary pre-loaded landingpage 601C contains a landing page comprising a search window displayinga banner advertisement 608C. Other tabs 602C, 603C, 604C, 605C, 606C,and 607C contain logos representing additional third-party publisherlanding pages. These third-party publisher landing pages may already beloaded by the publishing platform 105A as referenced in FIG. 1A (e.g.,they may be preloaded), above, or the landing pages may load when a userclicks on the tab.

According to one embodiment, landing page content may be displayed as animage in various forms including, but not limited to: an icon or logorepresenting a third-party publisher, an icon or logo representing thepublisher of the initial page from which the content request was made, a“wait screen” indicating that the landing page has not yet loaded, andso on and so forth.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of an initial control 701 within a displayarea 700. Controls may include a text box 702 for text entry, a dateselector 703, and a drop-down list 704. Additional controls arepossible, including sliders, buttons, numeric value inputs, check boxes,user-selectable tags, and so forth. In one embodiment, an initialcontrol may be found in first display area, such as a web page. Inanother embodiment, an initial control may be found in a landing pagewhich may, or may not, be in the first display area. In someembodiments, landing pages may be presented in a second display area,and initial controls may be presented within the landing pages.

While not shown in FIG. 7, in one embodiment, the initial control 701may include a series of checkboxes for identifying third-partypublishers from which to request landing page content. In anotherembodiment, the initial control 701 may include a series of boxes, tabsor other graphical elements that may also include third-party publisherlogos to allow a user to select a third-party content provider site tohighlight in the display area 700. In yet another embodiment, theinitial control 701 may appear in a display area 700 presented inpopover format in front of open windows and display areas.

Content Requests

Content requests, such as content request 112A as referenced in FIG. 1Aabove, may originate in a variety of manners. As discussed above,according to one embodiment, a user may request content from apublisher. According to other embodiments, a content request mayoriginate within a publishing platform 105A as referenced in FIG. 1Aabove.

According to one embodiment, a request for content, such as the requestfor content received in block 404 as referenced in FIG. 4 above, mayinitiate a number of steps to display publisher content and/or landingpages from third-party publishers.

According to another embodiment, a publisher may store or save a requestfor content. This request for content may be associated with a user asidentified in any number of ways, including: browser cookie, browserpixel, media access control (MAC) sublayer address, device identifier,user ID, mobile device identifier, login information, and so forth. Insubsequent user sessions, a publisher, or a third-party publisher, maydesire to display content or landing page content responsive to thatcontent request. For example, a publisher may wish to display airlineticket information for flights to Los Angeles, California to a user whosearched for hotels in Los Angeles, California in a prior session.Alternatively, a publisher may wish to display the same hotel search tothe user if the prior session terminated recently. Similarly, theseoptions may extend to landing pages presented by third-party publishers,and a publisher may present pre-loaded landing pages responsive to savedsearches from prior sessions.

Content Refresh

According to one embodiment, a publisher may observe user activitywithin a distributed computing system and may configure a structure,such as a publishing system 304 as referenced in FIG. 3 above, or apublishing platform 105A as referenced in FIG. 1A above, to refreshcontent automatically in order to ensure that publisher and third-partylanding page content is accurate and up to date. The publisher mayselect one of any number of events to trigger a content request (andultimately an update of publisher and/or third-party landing pagecontent), including but not limited to: time (e.g. automaticallyrefreshing after an elapsed period of time); user actions (e.g.demonstrating an intent to purchase or closing or minimizing a displayarea); a request from a third-party publisher to refresh a landing page;and so forth.

Search Update

According to one embodiment, once a display area has been populated withcontent responsive to a content request, a user, publisher, orthird-party publisher, may make a second content request. This secondcontent request may form the basis for an update of the publishercontent and/or the third-party landing page content. For example, afterrequesting new content (e.g. searching) on the initial publisher displayarea (e.g. browser window), a user may be prompted (e.g. with aninteractive interface in the display area incorporating the text“Compare All Prices”) to update the search within the third-partylanding pages.

FIG. 8 shows one embodiment of a process for updating a search anddelivering landing pages 800. Process 800 may, for instance, be oneimplementation of system 300 as discussed above with reference to FIG.3. Process 800 begins at start block 802. At block 804 the publisher ofa travel website receives a second content request. According to oneembodiment, the content request may come from a user interacting with abrowser 310 on a client system 302 as referenced in FIG. 3, above.According to another embodiment, the content request may come from acontent management engine 322, also referenced in FIG. 3 above,responding to a set of rules defined by a publisher. For example, apublisher may determine a set of behaviors suggesting an intent topurchase a hotel room—the publisher may implement a rule at thatdecision point to request content related to rental cars and to displaythat content alongside the hotel reservation information. Block 804initiates two steps indicated by block 806 and block 814.

At block 806 the publishing system decides whether or not to update thepublisher's display area associated with the second content request. Ifnot, the process terminates at block 826. If the publishing systemdecides to update the publisher's display area, the process proceeds toblock 808.

At block 808, the publishing system accepts the content request andsearches for content on, for example, the web engine 320 and webpublishing database 330 as referenced in FIG. 3, above. At block 810,the publishing system determines which, of the requested and retrievedcontent, to present to the user. The decision at block 810 mayincorporate intelligence, such as behavioral and contextual inputs,targeting, retargeting, and network information available from thecontent management engine 322 as referenced in FIG. 3 above. At block812, the publishing system presents content to a user in a display, suchas a web page as shown in browser 310 on a client system 302 asreferenced in FIG. 3 above.

At block 814 the publishing system decides whether or not to update thelanding page content area associated with the second content request. Ifnot, the process terminates at block 826. If the publishing systemdecided to update the publisher's display area, the process proceeds toblock 816.

At block 816, the publishing system decides from which third-partypublishers to request landing page content. According to one embodiment,the third-party publishers may be travel websites on which a user may becomparison shopping for an airline ticket. The step at block 816 may beperformed by decision engine 324 as referenced in FIG. 3 above. Once thepublishing system has determined from which third-party publishers torequest landing page content, at block 818, that request is passed toeach of the respective third-party publishers, either directly, bycontacting each third-party publisher, or indirectly, by contacting anintermediary network, such as an advertising network.

At block 820, the publishing system receives landing page content fromthird-party publishers. At block 822, the publishing system assembleslanding page content for presentation in a display area, such asnavigator interface 312 as referenced in FIG. 3 above. At block 824, thepublishing system passes the landing page content to the publisher,which presents the landing page content, such as that contained withinnavigator interface 312, to the user. The steps at 820, 822, and 824 mayeach be performed by a structure such as landing page presentationengine 326 as referenced in FIG. 3 above.

At Block 826, Process 800 Ends.

It is worth noting that, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 1A-C, FIG.3 and FIG. 4, above, other structures, including client software, webbrowsers and the like may also perform steps of process 800 as describedin FIG. 8.

According to one embodiment, a user may make a first content request bysearching on fly.com for flights from NYC to SFO. The publishing systemdisplays landing page content in a popunder window displayed behind thefly.com display area, and loads content for NYC-SFO for selectedthird-party publishers. The user then changes the search on fly.com fromSFO to LAX, and the publishing platform automatically refreshesthird-party landing page content to reflect LAX as the destinationairport. According to one embodiment, this search may propagate from thefly.com display area to the third-party landing pages through a numberof methods including: direct message from fly.com, a mutually-readablelocal or server-side cookie, or another storage and communicationtechnique.

According to one embodiment, a user may make a first content request bysearching on fly.com for flights from NYC to SFO. The publishing systemdisplays landing page content in a popunder window displayed behind thefly.com display area, and loads content for NYC-SFO for selectedthird-party publishers. The user may then, in a third display area,visit Orbitz.com (which belongs to the same content delivery oradvertising network as fly.com) and may make a second content request byperforming a search for NYC to SEA there. Because the two publishersshare an intermediary network, fly.com may update the search on thefly.com display area and/or update the search in the third-party landingpage content displayed as a popunder window in a second display area.

Exemplary General Purpose Computer System

Various embodiments according to the present invention may beimplemented on one or more computer systems. These computer systems maybe, for example, general-purpose computers such as those based on theIntel Core® processor, Apple “A” Series processors, AMD Athlon andA-Series processors, Qualcommm Snapdragon, processors, or any other typeof processor. It should be appreciated that one or more of any typecomputer system may be used to determine ad placement according tovarious embodiments of the invention. Further, the system may be locatedon a single computer or may be distributed among a plurality ofcomputers attached by a communications network.

A general-purpose computer system according to one embodiment of theinvention is configured to perform any of the described functions,including but not limited to, observing user interactions within adistributed computer system, displaying a graphical user interface tothe user of a distributed computer system, presenting web pages tovisitors of a publisher or third-party publisher website, receivingcontent requests, receiving controls from user interactions with agraphical user interface, searching for content, deciding whether torequest landing page content, selecting third-parties from which torequest landing page content, receiving landing page content, assemblinglanding page content, and presenting landing page content to aninterface. It should be appreciated that the system may perform otherfunctions, including, but not limited to, storing and/or managing thehistorical behavior of users, monitoring the conversion of return users,maintaining a database of third-party publishers, maintaining a databaseof landing page inventors, maintaining a database of landing page bidrequests, etc., and it should also be appreciated that the invention isnot limited to having any particular function or set of functions.

FIG. 9 shows a block diagram of a general purpose computer and networksystem 900 in which various aspects of the present invention may bepracticed. For example, various aspects of the invention may beimplemented as specialized software executing in one or more computersystems including general-purpose computer system 901 shown in FIG. 9.Computer system 901 may include a processor 904 connected to one or morememory devices 905, such as a disk drive, memory, or other device forstoring data. Memory 905 is typically used for storing programs and dataduring operation of the computer system 901. Components of computersystem 901 may be coupled by an interconnection mechanism such asnetwork 910, which may include one or more busses (e.g., betweencomponents that are integrated within a same machine) and/or a network(e.g., between components that reside on separate discrete machines).The interconnection mechanism enables communications (e.g., data,instructions) to be exchanged between system components of system 901.

Computer system 901 also includes one or more input/output (I/O) devices906, for example, a keyboard, mouse, trackball, microphone, touchscreen, a printing device, display screen, speaker, etc. In addition,computer system 901 may contain one or more interfaces (e.g., networkcommunication device 908) that connect computer system 901 to acommunication network (in addition or as an alternative to the network910).

Storage system 909 typically includes a computer readable and writeablenonvolatile recording medium in which signals are stored that define aprogram to be executed by the processor or information stored on or inthe medium to be processed by the program. The medium may, for example,be a disk or flash memory. Typically, in operation, the processor causesdata to be read from the nonvolatile recording medium into anothermemory that allows for faster access to the information by the processorthan does the medium. This memory is typically a volatile, random accessmemory such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or static memory(SRAM). The memory may be located in storage system 909, as shown, or inmemory system 905. The processor 904 generally manipulates the datawithin the integrated circuit memory 904, and then copies the data tothe medium associated with storage 909 after processing is completed. Avariety of mechanisms are known for managing data movement between themedium and integrated circuit memory element and the invention is notlimited thereto. The invention is not limited to a particular memorysystem or storage system.

The computer system may include specially-programmed, special-purposehardware, for example, an application-specific integrated circuit(ASIC). Aspects of the invention may be implemented in software,hardware or firmware, or any combination thereof. Further, such methods,acts, systems, system elements and components thereof may be implementedas part of the computer system described above or as an independentcomponent.

Although computer system 901 is shown by way of example as one type ofcomputer system upon which various aspects of the invention may bepracticed, it should be appreciated that aspects of the invention arenot limited to being implemented on the computer system as shown in FIG.9. Various aspects of the invention may be practiced on one or morecomputers having a different architectures or components than that shownin FIG. 9.

Computer system 901 may be a general-purpose computer system that isprogrammable using a high-level computer programming language. Computersystem 901 may be also implemented using specially programmed, specialpurpose hardware. In computer system 901, processor 904 is typically acommercially-available processor such as the well-known Core® seriesprocessor available from the Intel Corporation, although many otherprocessors are available. Such a processor usually executes an operatingsystem which may be, for example, the Android mobile operating systemavailable from Google, Inc., the iOS mobile operating system availablefrom Apple Computer, various Windows-based operating systems availablefrom the Microsoft Corporation, the MAC OS operating system availablefrom Apple Computer, or one or more of the Linux-based and UNIX-basedoperating system distributions (e.g., the Enterprise Linux operatingsystem available from Red Hat Inc.) available from various sources. Itshould be understood that the invention is not limited to any particularoperating system.

The processor and operating system together define a computer platformfor which application programs in high-level programming languages arewritten. It should be understood that the invention is not limited to aparticular computer system platform, processor, operating system, ornetwork. Also, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art thatthe present invention is not limited to a specific programming languageor computer system. Further, it should be appreciated that otherappropriate programming languages and other appropriate computer systemscould also be used.

One or more portions of the computer system may be distributed acrossone or more computer systems coupled to a communications network. Thesecomputer systems also may be general-purpose computer systems. Forexample, various aspects of the invention may be distributed among oneor more computer systems (e.g., servers) configured to provide a serviceto one or more client computers, or to perform an overall task as partof a distributed system. By way of further example, various aspects ofthe invention may be performed on a client-server or multi-tier systemthat includes components distributed among one or more server systemsthat perform various functions according to various embodiments of theinvention. These components may be executable, intermediate (e.g., IL)or interpreted (e.g., Java) code which communicate over a communicationnetwork (e.g., the Internet) using a communication protocol (e.g.,TCP/IP).

It should be appreciated that the invention is not limited to executingon any particular system or group of systems. Also, it should beappreciated that the invention is not limited to any particulardistributed architecture, network, or communication protocol.

Various embodiments of the present invention may be programmed using anobject-oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, or C#(C-Sharp). Other object-oriented programming languages may also be used.Alternatively, functional, scripting, and/or logical programminglanguages may be used. Various aspects of the invention may beimplemented in a non-programmed environment (e.g., documents created inHTML, XML or other format that, when viewed in a window of a browserprogram, render aspects of a graphical-user interface (GUI) or performother functions). Various aspects of the invention may be implemented asprogrammed or non-programmed elements, or any combination thereof.

Various aspects of this system can be implemented by one or more systemswithin system 900. For instance, the system may be a distributed system(e.g., client server, multi-tier system). In one example, the systemincludes software processes executing on a system associated with a user(e.g., a client system). These systems may permit the user to determinea user's context and/or intent as expressed within an ecommerce site,and to provide advertisements from other ecommerce sites, and to displaythem to the user.

Having thus described several aspects of at least one embodiment of thisinvention, it is to be appreciated various alterations, modifications,and improvements will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Suchalterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be part ofthis disclosure, and are intended to be within the spirit and scope ofthe invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings areby way of example only.

What is claimed is: 1.-16. (canceled)
 17. A distributed computer systemcomprising: at least one processor; and at least one storage mediumhaving encoded thereon instructions that, when executed by the at leastone processor, cause the at least one processor to: accept a firstcontent request in response to a first action performed by a userinteracting with at least one graphical user interface provided by thecomputer system, the first content request comprising one or moreparameters for executing a search by at least one publisher separatefrom the computer system; transmit the first content request to apublishing platform; receive landing page content responsive totransmitting the first content request without navigating away from theat least one first graphical user interface, the landing page contentcomprising results of executing the search by at least one publisherseparate from the computer system; and generate, as a portion of the atleast one graphical user interface, a presentation interface comprisinga display of a representation of the received landing page content, therepresentation of the received landing page content including arepresentation of at least some of the results of executing the searchby the at least one publisher.
 18. The system of claim 17 wherein therepresentation of the received landing page content is arranged in oneor more of the formats comprising the group of: landing page thumbnail,loaded landing page, icon representing the landing page content, orimage representing the landing page content.
 19. The system of claim 17wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a controlarea, and wherein the first action performed by the user comprisesinteracting with the control area.
 20. The system of claim 17, whereinthe presentation interface comprises a first and second content displayarea, and wherein the instructions further cause the at least oneprocessor to: display landing page content generated by a first one ofthe at least one publisher in the first content display area; anddisplay the landing page content generated by a second one of the atleast one publisher in the second content display area.
 21. The systemof claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the at least oneprocessor to: in response to a second action performed by the userinteracting with the at least one_graphical user interface, accept asecond content request; transmit the second content request to thepublishing platform; receive landing page content responsive totransmitting the second content request without navigating away from theat least one graphical user interface; and display, within thepresentation interface, a representation of the landing page contentreceived responsive to transmitting the second request.
 22. The systemof claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause that at least oneprocessor to observe user interactions with the at least one graphicaluser interface.
 23. The system of claim 17, wherein the instructionsfurther cause the at least one processor to: receive updated landingpage content from the at least one publisher; and update therepresentation of landing content displayed in the presentationinterface responsive to receiving the updated landing page content. 24.The system of claim 17, wherein the at least one publisher comprises aplurality of publishers, and generating the presentation interfacecomprises generating a carousel user interface configured to rotatethrough representations of landing page content generated by at leastsome of the plurality of publishers.
 25. The system of claim 17, whereinthe at least one publisher comprises a plurality of publishers, andgenerating the presentation interface comprises generating an array ofpanes, each of the panes displaying a representation of landing pagecontent generated by each of at least some of the plurality ofpublishers.
 26. The system of claim 25, wherein generating thepresentation interface comprises displaying the array of panes in astack in the presentation interface, wherein the instructions furthercause the at least one processor to: in response to selection of one ofthe panes, focus the selected pane by placing the selected pane in frontof the stack.
 27. The system of claim 17, wherein the at least onepublisher comprises a plurality of publishers, and generating thepresentation interface comprises generating an array of tabs, each ofthe tabs associated with one of at least some of the plurality ofpublishers, wherein the instructions further cause the at least oneprocessor to: in response to selection of a respective one of the tabs,display landing page content in the presentation interface generated bya respective one of the at least some publishers associated with therespective tab.
 28. The system of claim 17, wherein the at least onegraphical user interface comprises a first window and the portion of theat least one graphical user interface comprises a second window separatefrom the first window.
 29. The system of claim 17, wherein the at leastone graphical user interface comprises a first web page of a web siteprovided by the computer system.
 30. The system of claim 29, wherein theportion of the at least one graphical user interface comprises a portionof the first web page.
 31. The system of claim 29, wherein the portionof the at least one graphical user interface comprises a second web pageof the web site separate from the first web page.
 32. The system ofclaim 17, wherein the first action comprises submitting the one or moresearch parameters for performing the search, and accepting the firstcontent request comprises accepting the one or more search parameters.33. The system of claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause theat least one processor to display, within the presentation interface, atleast one name and/or at least one logo associated with the landing pagecontent.
 34. The system of claim 17, wherein the at least one graphicaluser interface comprises at least one user interface of a mobileapplication provided by the computer system.
 35. A method implemented ina computer system comprising: accepting a first content request inresponse to a first action performed by a user interacting with at leastone graphical user interface provided by the computer system, the firstcontent request comprising one or more parameters for executing a searchby at least one publisher separate from the computer system;transmitting the first content request to a publishing platform;receiving landing page content responsive to transmitting the firstcontent request without navigating away from the at least one graphicaluser interface, the landing page content comprising results of executingthe search by at least one publisher separate from the computer system;and generating, as a portion of the at least one graphical userinterface, a presentation interface comprising a display of arepresentation of the received landing page content, the representationof the received landing page content including a representation of atleast some of the results of executing the search by the at least onepublisher.
 36. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium storing instructions thereon that, when executed by a computersystem, cause the computer system to perform a method comprising:accepting a first content request in response to a first actionperformed by a user interacting with at least one graphical userinterface provided by the computer system, the first content requestcomprising one or more parameters for executing a search by at least onepublisher separate from the computer system; transmitting the firstcontent request to a publishing platform; receiving landing page contentresponsive to transmitting the first content request without navigatingaway from the at least one graphical user interface, the landing pagecontent comprising results of executing the search by at least onepublisher separate from the computer system; and generating, as aportion of the at least one graphical user interface, a presentationinterface comprising a display of a representation of the receivedlanding page content, the representation of the received landing pagecontent including a representation of at least some of the results ofexecuting the search by the at least one publisher.